Starting Your Family Tree: Searching the 1940 Census, Organizing Your Info

Where to Write it Down?

Almost everyone starts writing their genealogies on paper, including me.  Start with a family group sheet.  A family group sheet contains places for information about a set of parents and their children.  The information includes date and place for birth, marriage and death for each individual.   Start with a family group sheet for your immediate family.   Googling “Family Group Sheet” will bring up many options.  They are all slightly different but contain the same information.  Pick your favorite.  Here’s a sample one…

 http://www.ancestry.com/trees/charts/familysheet.aspx

Fill in what you can.  It is rare to be able fill in all information immediately.  Next create a family group sheet for each set of your grandparents.  Include your parent as their child.  Include your aunts and uncles.    For each generation, create a family group sheet.  Use a pencil.  Once you start digging into records, you’ll find information that someone gave you isn’t exactly correct.

Next draw a family tree so that you can see relationships.  Start with yourself, add your parents and then your grandparents.   Add as many generations as you can.  You don’t need to add children on the tree.

Get a binder and put everything in it in an order that makes sense for you (i.e.  by generation,  alphabetical by surname.)  Set aside a drawer or place in a filing cabinet for everything you find.  One mistake I made in the beginning is not being organized.  There are photocopies, books and notes from my early days that I have no idea where they are now.   If you can’t find it, you’ve wasted your time doing the research.

Genealogy Software

At some point, it becomes impossible to see how people are related or find someone in your paper files.  I’m currently tracking almost 5500 individuals.    When you get to that point, you need to choose which software you are going to use. 

I use Family Tree Maker (FTM).    I got it many years ago for free because of a rebate.   I’ve got too much information in it to switch to something else.   FTM is now owned by Ancestry.com.  There is a feature that allows you to sync your data on your computer with a tree on Ancestry.com.  This assumes that you have a subscription to Ancestry.com.  I don’t.   I have a love/hate relationship with Ancestry.com.  I’ll get into that in my next blog.   The North Reading Library has a subscription to Ancestry.com.  You can use it from any of the library computers.

Legacy Family Tree is another option.  The standard version is free on their website - http://www.legacyfamilytree.com/.   There is also a deluxe version that you can buy.  Start with the free version and then if you need it, upgrade. 

There are several other options and they’re all fine.   I even know someone that doesn’t use any family tree software, he uses only Word.  There are good things about Word but I don’t know how he maintains a tree.  The one thing I would recommend is not to use something that is only on line.  You want something on your computer. 

Whatever software you use, make sure you back it up regularly.   You would be heartbroken to have spent many hours doing research and entering that information into your tree and then have your computer die.  It happens.  Back it up.  I use Google Drive -  https://drive.google.com.  Google gives you 5GB of space for free.   That is more than enough space to back up your tree.  If you download their software, you can select a folder for it to automatically back up.    Another advantage of Google Drive is that you can access it anywhere and you can give family access to view some or all of your files. 

First Search

Now you are ready to begin searching for your family.  The easiest place to start is the 1940 census.    Census records are sealed for 70 years.  The reasoning behind the 70 years is that most people within the census will no longer be alive and therefore there will be no privacy issues.   The 1940 census was released earlier this year.    Many volunteers worldwide (including me) helped created an index for it so that it will be available for free.  The entire census is available on several sites but the one I use is the one on FamilySearch.Org - https://familysearch.org/1940census/?icid=fsHomeSearch1940Scouts.

FamilySearch.Org is run by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.   Genealogy is a big part of their religion.  They believe that ancestors need to be baptized into the Church.   They’ve gone around the world microfilming records and have the best collection.  All of their records are held in their library in Salt Lake City.   The good news is that you don’t have to belong to their church to use their records and you don’t have to travel to Salt Lake City to use them.  They are currently digitizing many records and they are available on familysearch.org.   Their catalog is also available on the website.  If something you need is not digitized, they have several Centers that will order what you’re interested in and let you view it locally.  The closest one to North Reading is in Lynnfield at 400 Essex St.

Choose someone from your tree that you can search for in the 1940 census.   At a minimum, enter the person’s name.  I’m going to use Red Sox legend Dominic DiMaggio as an example.  Just enter Dominic DiMaggio and click Search.  There are 75 Dom’s.  Notice it also included Dominicks – many search engines today give name variations.  Which one is the correct one?   Google tells us that he was born in San Francisco in 1917.  Scroll down a bit and under birth place on the left, select United States.  That narrows it down to 46.  We can scroll through the entries to find the correct Dominic or again scroll down to birth place and select California.   There are 2 Dominics that were born in California but which one is the correct one?  Since one of them lives in San Francisco (where he was born), open that one.   Find him on the sheet and scroll to the right to check his occupation – Professional Baseball!!  It’s the right one.  

This census record is full of information.  Everyone’s age is given so the approximate year of birth can be calculated for everyone.  The place of birth is given.  Now we know where to search for vital records (birth, marriage and death).  The parents were born in Italy and have not been naturalized.  His father’s name is probably Americanized from Giuseppe.  We knew before hand that he had a brother named Joe – now we know he was named after his father.    There’s another brother Thomas.  There are at least 2 sisters.  Sister Frances is living in her parent’s house with her husband and daughter.  The daughter is 7 so Frances likely got married 1-3 years before her birth.  There is another grandchild in the household.  Betty has a different name so there was another DiMaggio daughter.  Something happened that caused Betty to be living with her grandparents.  Her parents may have died or fallen on hard times and can’t take care of her.   Notice that Dom finished high school where his parents and siblings did not.   The family lived at 2150 Beach St.  They owned their home and it was worth $12K.  Notice the X next to Joseph’s name.  That means that Joseph is the one that gave the information to the enumerator.  The 1940 Census is the first census where this information was recorded.   Before that, you didn’t know how accurate the information was – a neighbor may have given the information.   I’ve also heard about a 7 year old giving the information because their parents were at work and they were home alone (boy have times changed).  Notice that Thomas is a restaurant manager and Vincent is a cashier at a restaurant.    It is likely that they work in the same restaurant and it is possible that is how Vincent met Frances. 

Always look at the neighbors around the family you are interested in – at least a page or 2 before and after.  See what you can learn about the neighborhood.  Was it an affluent neighborhood?  Was it an immigrant neighborhood?  What type of jobs did they have?  Did they own their homes or rent?   Were relatives living close by?   Families tended to congregate together.   Many times I’ve gone back and looked at census records and realized that the family next door was actually their married daughter or a cousin or aunt.    What do you notice about Dom’s neighborhood?  The thing that jumps out at me was that they were the only ones that owned their home.  Everyone else rented.    Did the ball playing sons buy the house for their parents? 

Why is Dominic enumerated in San Francisco instead of Boston where he was playing for the Red Sox?   If you look at the directions on the top of column 7 it states that they should list everyone in the household that was living there on April 1^st.   If the census happened today, the player would be at spring training.  What was the baseball season in 1940?  Always keep in mind the era where the research is being done.  Things change over time so you need to look at the information as it relates to that time frame.

One of the things I like to do when I have an address for an ancestor is to go visit the house and neighborhood.  I try to picture what the neighborhood was like when they lived there and picture my relative there.  Depending on where the ancestor lives, it may not be possible.  In this case, we can’t wander around San Francisco but we can do it virtually with Google Maps (http://maps.google.com).  Many times there is a street view and you can see the house at that address.  Just because you see a house at that address does not mean that your ancestor lived there.  The house could be new, the houses on the street could have been renumbered, the street renamed or the street/house no longer exists.  The DiMaggios lived at 2150 Beach St in San Francisco and in this case, the house is still the same one where they lived.  Joe and Marilyn Monroe lived in the same house after they were married.

Until next time, try searching for your family that was alive in 1940.  If you can’t find them, try different spellings for their names.  Still can’t find them, try a spouse or sibling. Look at those within a 5 year age range.  Remember just because you’ve found someone that matches the criteria you are searching for, it doesn’t mean that it is the right person.  There are many people with the same names born around the same time.   Do they match other things you know about that person – siblings, spouse, occupations, towns, streets, where born?   Another problem with census records is that the data is notoriously inaccurate.  It’s only as good as the person giving the information.  Not everyone remembered how old their kids were or where they were born – especially if they had a big family.    Use it as a great source of information for finding more accurate records – vital records, naturalization records, military records, etc.  Don’t forget to enter the information that you found into your tree and/or family group sheets.